I'm a huge fan of trying new things, so a friend and I decided to try Iranian food for the first time (well, for me it was). We went to Karoon Restaurant in Richmond Hill, Ontario.
The experience was...interesting...
We arrived shortly before 7:00 p.m. on a long weekend. It occurred to us that we were really early, as the restaurant was nearly empty (an Iranian friend later confirmed dinners don't usually get started until later in the evening). We were quickly seated at a table for 2. Unfortunately, there was a dirty spoon in my place setting. We pointed this out to the server, who very quickly replaced all the plates and utensils on the entire table (I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing).
The server arrived with the equivalent of fresh bread to get us started while we looked over the menu. Warm pita bread was served in a basket alongside a plate of onions, radish, cucumber, parsley and goat's cheese. Who knew something so simple could be so delicious? My friend and I quickly constructed mini pita sandwiches and devoured them.
Encouraged by this, we looked at the menu, anxiously trying to decide on our mains. We asked the server what was most popular, and he recommended the combination platter for 2. We ordered the platter with two skewers of kabob koobideh (skewered ground beef), 1 skewer of lamb chop kabob, and 1 skewer of chicken thigh kabob. Two plates of saffron rice would accompany the platter.
After a 20 minute wait, our server returned with an iceberg lettuce salad with cucumber, tomatoes, and some sort of store-bought dressing. Perhaps because our main course was running late? Two bites of this room temperature salad was more than enough.
Our main course finally arrived around the 35 minute mark. The arrangement on the plate was a pleasure to look at - it looked like dinner was going to be worth the wait, and the salad was just a blip on the screen.
The portions were EXTREMELY generous. The taste? It depended on what you ate. The chicken and lamb, though nicely seasoned were burnt and dry. The koobideh however, was amazing. Well-seasoned and moist, it went deliciously well with a mouthful of saffron rice. The platter was also accompanied by two grilled tomatoes...which turned out to be even better then the koobideh - ripe and juicy, and charred just enough to give a deliciously smoky flavour.
Overall dinner wasn't bad. But it wasn't great either. (Oh...and for your convenience, a 15% gratuity is automatically added to your tab. Which is funny because it was a challenge to even find our server.)
Restaurant rating: Meh. Would go back if everything else was closed.
